autobiography

How to wear a Cheongsam [Extract from Chapter One: Stilettos – Bound Feet Blues, The Book]

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

As you may know, I’ve been working on Bound Feet Blues – The Book which brings together the stories behind the story of the show. I have just finished Chapter One: Stilettos, bringing it home at 17,000+ words. The chapter goes behind the scenes of the opening sequence of the theatre performance, which depicts me walking to a ball in stilettos and a red cheongsam, aged 20.

I share stories of my coming of age as a young woman at Oxford, falling in love and discovering the power of my femininity – and how I transformed from a shy, awkward fresher into a woman who can sashay along confidently in a slinky evening gown.

” You must be sleek and slim – and curvaceous, but only in the right places”

Here is an extract, describing what it takes to wear the tight fitting, figure hugging, seductive Chinese traditional dress, while walking in heels…

I like this shade of red. The grey backdrop has given me an idea, what about light grey cheongsams for the bridesmaids? That could look really nice and help the bride stand out more.

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“There is something about the severity of the high collar and the unforgiving close fit of the cheongsam  that requires a sternness in your upper body as you wear it. You cannot slack if you are to keep the cloth from creasing over your belly or pulling up over any untoward bumps and crevices. You must be sleek and slim – and curvaceous, but only in the right places, which is why the dress has to be tailor made for exactly your shape and cannot be Continue reading →

Bound Feet Blues – The Book!

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

I’ve made a start on the book version of Bound Feet Blues and I’m pleased to say I have the first 5,153 words.

The script of Bound Feet Blues is only 25 pages and runs to a one hour show. That meant that I had to edit down the stories and simplify it all in order to create a story that works as an oral story and a theatre piece. The book will tell “The Stories Behind The Story”, expanding on and deepening the stories that are in the show.

The book will be framed by the scratch night performance that I tried out at Conway Hall in March this year. This was my first attempt at presenting the piece to a live audience and was made up of 45 minutes of a rough draft of the incomplete material. The book will follow my journey as a writer and performer trying to develop the memoir that would eventually become Bound Feet Blues, the show, alongside the journey of the actual story within the show.

Why this structure?

Well, I tried for many years to write the stories of my family, my heritage and my own personal life as a conventional memoir and that did not work. Bound Feet Blues works because it is a live dramatised story performance. So I want to honour the oral storytelling out of which the show evolved by writing a book that is an UNconventional memoir and that has the feel of Continue reading →

How do you write about your life without upsetting the people you love? [Bound Feet Blues]

/ Yang-May Ooi / Leave a comment

As an author of memoir or true stories that is the big dilemma: how do you tell stories about your life without upsetting the people you love who may be an integral part of those stories –  especially because they are an integral part of your life?

I’ve mulled over this long and hard as I’ve been working on Bound Feet Blues, which tells stories from my life – and which inevitabley involve those people who are an important part of my life.

My blog post on my main blog StoryGuru explores this dilemma in more depth: see  True Stories Told Live: Innocent Bystanders May Be Written Into This Story [Bound Feet Blues]

“One of the challenges about true stories told live – ie telling stories from your own life – is that they involve other people. And while these people may have signed up to your life as a friend or enemy or lover or relative or colleague, they may not have signed up to be in your story, whether that story is a written memoir or an oral story told live to others. So, how do you tell stories or write books about your life without upsetting those who appear in them because they happen to be around during the incident you are talking about?…

[READ MORE]

 

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Photo: thanks to flattop341 on flickr.com (CCL)